Family and Education

b. Jan. 1557, 1st s. of Thomas Mill^†, town clerk and recorder of Southampton, by Alice, da. of Robert or Thomas Coker of Mappowder, Dorset. m. c.1585, Mary, da. of Sir John Savage of Rocksavage, Cheshire, by Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, s.p. suc. fa. 1560, uncle 1568. Kntd. 1601.

Offices Held

Freeman, Southampton 1581; j.p. Hants from 1591, commr. recusants, by 1592, sheriff 1593-4, commr. piracy 1603.

Biography

John Mill, recorder of Southampton and MP for the borough during the Reformation Parliament, purchased extensive property in Hampshire, which passed on his death to his eldest son George, who died s.p. 19 Feb. 1568. The lands then descended to his nephew Richard, who succeeded aged 11, when his wardship was sold to Henry, Earl of Arundel. Mill enlarged his interest in the Nursling property by leasing the Old Manor House and Grove Place from the dean and chapter of Windsor. His fortunate marriage may itself have been a result of Sir John Savage’s marriage to the widow of the Hampshire landowner Sir Richard Pexall, and it may even have encouraged Mill to serve in his only Parliament at the age of 40. His wife’s brothers, John and Edward Savage, and her sisters’ husbands, Sir William Brereton II, Thomas Langton, Thomas Wilkes and Sir Henry Bagnall were all Members of the House of Commons. Mill was named to only one committee, on the poor law, 22 Nov. 1597, though, as a knight of the shire, he was entitled to attend the committees on enclosures (5 Nov.), the poor law (5, 22 Nov.), armour and weapons (8 Nov.), the penal laws (8 Nov.), monopolies (10 Nov.) and the subsidy (15 Nov.). He was knighted by the Queen on her visit to the 4th Marquess of Winchester at Basing.

Mill died 20 Oct. 1613, and was buried in Nursling church, where his monument survives. In his will, dated 2 May 1610, he recalled the promise of God ‘to His elect’. He bequeathed plate and money to various relations and left £10 and the use of Nursling mills to his steward, Andrew Munday, who was formerly employed by the Countess of Southampton and who later married into the Mill family. He appointed his ‘very loving friend and cousin’ Sir Thomas West, his brother-in-law Edward Savage, his friend William Brocke of Longwood, and his steward, Andrew Munday, as overseers. The will was proved 24 Nov. by his widow, the executrix and residuary legatee.

Wards 9/140/42-5; Assembly Bks. (Soton Rec. Soc.), passim; Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 160; B. B. Woodward, et al. Hist. Hants, i. 394; Vis. Cheshire (Harl. Soc. lix), 206; Recusant Roll (Cath. Rec. Soc. xviii), 334; Lansd. 142, f. 204; CPR, 1566-7, p. 395; VCH Hants, iii. 435-6; iv. 617-19, 622, 628; v. 143, 150-1, 230; Harl. 75, f. 123v; D’Ewes, 552, 553, 555, 557, 561; PCC 98 Capell.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: R.C.G.

Notes